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March 12, 2006
Who Needs Donuts?
THE HISTORY
Back in 1974, when I was nine years old, I bought a book titled Who Needs Donuts? from a book club. I still have the book (thanks Shelley for keeping it safe all those years!). I bought this book because my dad already had a photocopy of it given to him by a coworker and I loved it.
I contacted Mark Alan Stamaty, the author, by phone back in late 2002 with the intention of persuading him to reprint the book. My timing was apparently inspired because a publicity director for Random House children’s books told him the same thing.
Mark Alan Stamaty, 2006
THE BOOK
So what is this book all about and why am I raving about it? It’s about a boy named Sam who learns an important lesson about love. Below is a scanned image from the cover of my original (and tattered) 1974 edition just to give you a small taste. If you click on the picture, another window will open with a much higher quality version.
Copyright © 1973, renewed 2001 by Mark Alan Stamaty. Reprinted with permission.
MY REVIEW
When Mark told me that the book had finally been reprinted, I penned a review on Amazon.com, which I quote:
Intoxicating, mesmerising, insanely detailed and puns galore
October 2, 2003You will never again find a book like this unless Mark is crazy enough to create a sequel. I find it amazing that he drew all the illustrations at the printed size — it must have given him quite a headache.
I was reading through it just now and found yet another very funny thing I don’t remember seeing before (and burst out laughing) even though I’ve spent many hours looking at this book since I was a kid.
Unbelievably and beautifully detailed, with a vibe and feel all its own, Sam’s world seems visually chaotic to us, the reader, yet Sam seems to fit right in as simply as can be. The story teaches against materialism and its pitfalls without being preachy or obvious, which made an impression on me at an early age.
This book is for adults as much as it is for children. My whole family competed for viewing time when I first bought it (at age nine) back in 1974. Now I get to share it with my daughters who seem to enjoy it as much as I have.
Now that Mark has gotten it reprinted, I have already purchased four new hardbound copies to add to my tattered perfectbound original, partly for friends, but also to just stick away somewhere should the book go mindlessly out of print again — it took me forever to find my old copy buried in boxes.
Thanks, Mark, for a delightful romp through a world full of horsebirds, stupid puns, witty social commentary, every kind of human charicature, and the absurdity of animals and inanimate objects with attached thought and speech bubbles. We need to come up with a website where people can list the minutiae found on those carefully crafted pages.
This is easily my favorite book of all time. Please, Mark, make a sequel.
AN INTERVIEW
Back in September of 2003, an interview with Mark Alan Stamaty appeared on a Blog titled Rands in Repose. In the interview, Mark explained his inspiration for the book and the way it all came about.
AUTOGRAPHED COPIES
Within two months of my Amazon.com review, because I was one of those who encouraged him to reprint the book, Mark was nice enough to autograph all four of those copies that I purchased. I gave three of them away for Christmas to my Dad, my sister Shelley and my late brother Daniel Trent. Shelley and Dad still have theirs, but I recovered Dan’s copy after he passed away in April of 2004. This is what Mark wrote — literally drew — inside Dan’s copy and my copy of the book:
SUPPORT MARK
Partly because Mark is such an innovative illustrator (heck, he probably inspired the entire Where’s Waldo series with the Donuts book), but also because the story is beautiful and simple and because Mark is such a great guy, you need to go to Amazon.com right now and buy this book. You will never regret the purchase. Well — you might regret it when everyone and his brother is fighting you to look at it.
On second thought, order more than one copy. That way you have a copy for yourself to savor and a copy for friends to spend countless hours finding hundreds and possibly thousands of hidden messages within the amazing drawings that fill every page.
DISCLAIMER
No donuts were harmed in the writing of this blog entry.
Posted by Nathan Dickson at March 12, 2006 05:19 PM